The NGO Delegation’s Summary Bulletin for the 43rd UNAIDS PCB Meeting reflects the engagement of the NGO Delegation on all agenda items amongst which: the NGO Report “People on the Move the Key to Ending AIDS”, and Thematic Segment on mental health

The 2018 NGO Report to PCB is intended to help renew and focus the dialogue around people on the move so that the 2030 target of ending AIDS as a public health threat can be achieved. Discussion and dialogue around people on the move have occurred at the United Nations (UN) since at least 1951, when the Convention Relating to the Status of
Refugees was adopted, and the forerunner of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the Intergovernmental Committee for European Migration (ICEM) was established to help resettle people displaced by World War II. Fifty years later, the link between migration, population mobility, and HIV surfaced in the 2001 UN General Assembly Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS. In 2016, the IOM became a related organization of the UN. UNAIDS and IOM first entered into a Cooperation Framework in 1999, which was later revised in 2002 and in 2011. In 2017, IOM and UNAIDS renewed a General Cooperation Agreement to enhance dialogue and cooperation to combine and coordinate their efforts.

This 43rd PCB meeting, with its very full-to-overflowing agenda, heightened tensions vis-à-vis the release of a report prepared by the Independent Expert Panel; the announcement by the Executive Director of his upcoming departure, and, the many reports and updates requiring actions from the Board. 

At its 41st meeting, the UNAIDS Programme Coordinating Board (PCB) agreed that the topic of the thematic segment of the 43rd meeting would be “Mental Health and HIV/AIDS–– promoting human rights, an integrated and person-centred approach to improving antiretroviral therapy (ART) adherence, well-being and quality of life.” This session responds to the growing acknowledgment of the importance ofContinue reading “Mental Health and HIV/AIDS – promoting human rights, an integrated and person-centred approach to improving ART adherence, well-being and quality of life”